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A Gold Rush of Witnesses

Letters, diaries, and remembrances shared on JSTOR by University of the Pacific reveal the hardships of day-to-day life during the California Gold Rush.

Read Before You Go

Grappling with Equatorial Guinea

A brief history of Africa’s most brutal dictator and what his legacy means for Equatorial Guinea today.

Ask a Professor

Margaret Geoga on the Ambiguities of Ancient Texts

An interview with Margaret Geoga, an Egyptologist who examines “wisdom instructions” to see how their interpretation differs between readers and over time.

Archive Adventures

The Trailblazing Merze Tate

A celebrated historian of race and imperialism, Tate was an intrepid traveler who avidly shared her passion and meticulously documented her journeys.

Pedagogies

Tips from a Librarian on Using JSTOR for Research

Follow these first steps toward success with your new research project.

Most Recent

Foliage of Acacia Senegal (Senegalia Senegal).

Plant of the Month

Acacia: A Legacy of Artistry and Extraction

The thorny Acacia tree produces gum arabic, a versatile substance that’s been driving global trade for centuries.

Enemy aliens on way to detention camp, Gloucester, NJ, 1918

Annotations

The Alien Enemies Act: Annotated

Confused about the oft-mentioned Alien Enemies Act? This explainer, with links to free peer-reviewed scholarship, may help clear things up.

Read Before You Go

Grappling with Equatorial Guinea

A brief history of Africa’s most brutal dictator and what his legacy means for Equatorial Guinea today.

Ask a Professor

Margaret Geoga on the Ambiguities of Ancient Texts

An interview with Margaret Geoga, an Egyptologist who examines “wisdom instructions” to see how their interpretation differs between readers and over time.

Archive Adventures

The Trailblazing Merze Tate

A celebrated historian of race and imperialism, Tate was an intrepid traveler who avidly shared her passion and meticulously documented her journeys.

Pedagogies

Tips from a Librarian on Using JSTOR for Research

Follow these first steps toward success with your new research project.

Racist Humor: Exploratory Readings

An introduction to the history and theory of racist humor and the social role it plays in Western societies.

Illustration accompanying an account by Lawrence Banck of the 1644 coronation of Pope Innocent X. The pope is having his testicles felt by a cardinal in order to confirm that he is a man.

Education & Society

The Myth of the Papal Toilet Chair

Legend holds that newly elected popes in the Middle Ages had to present their genitals for inspection to confirm that they were male.

Education & Society

Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos?

And have we been misinterpreting Leviticus?

Long Reads

Plants & Animals

The Fungi in the Carbon Jigsaw

Out of sight, below the soil’s surface, fungi play a vital role in the existence and health of our forests, woodlands, jungles, and prairies.

Politics & History

Iran: Creativity in the Aftermath of Uprising

Pamela Karimi’s new book examines how Iran’s “Women, Art, Freedom” protest movement has influenced the country’s artists and their work.

Politics & History

Lowell’s Forgotten House Mothers

As vital to the success of industrial New England as the mill girls who toiled in the factories were the women who oversaw their lodging.

Education & Society

Far Out: Why Don’t We Believe in UFOs?

Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?

Editors' Picks

Education & Society

The Wild West of Papal Conclaves

In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the death of a pope led to all sorts of chaos, from the destruction of art to armed violence in the streets.

Science & Technology

He Spoke for the Trees (and Also the Soil)

A champion of agroforestry, J. Russell Smith argued for the restoration of forests as key to sustainable agriculture in his seminal work Tree Crops.

Politics & History

Birth of A National Immigration Policy

Until the Civil War, regulating immigration to the US was left to individual states. That changed with Emancipation and the legal end of slavery.

Education & Society

Tips from a Librarian on Using JSTOR for Research

Follow these first steps toward success with your new research project.

Science & Technology

Caitlin D. Wylie on the Hidden Labor of STEM Research

An interview with Caitlin D. Wylie, a social scientist who analyzes “behind-the-science work” to understand how knowledge is produced and who produces it.

Quirky History

Village Festival by David Teniers the Younger

Hocktide: A Medieval Fest of Flirtation and Finances

The springtime holiday of Hocktide not only allowed villagers to cross social boundaries in the name of fun, it helped them raise funds for nonsecular needs.

Far Out: Why Don’t We Believe in UFOs?

Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?

The Popularity and Politics of Pedestrianism

The sport of competitive walking touched on social concerns such as debt and poverty, fitness and fame, but it also found support in the temperance movement.

Collections on JSTOR

12 Poems by Frank O’Hara

Plus his manifesto on Personism and writings about O’Hara by Ted Berrigan, Joseph LeSueur, and Joe Brainard.

A series of posters created by the American Forces Information Service (AFIS)

Life Advice From the Armed Forces

These American Forces Information Service posters shared via JSTOR by The University of Alabama in Huntsville offer us the wisdom we didn’t know we needed.

Photograph of Mr. Harrison Williams Holding a Camera

Seeking Clues in Cabinet Cards

The poignant images, at once banal and intimate, in the Lynch Family Photographs Collection contain mysteries perhaps only the public can solve.

Reading Lists

Vienna, Austria. The Naturhistorisches (Natural History) Museum, Vienna

Natural History: A Reading List

This annotated bibliography samples scholarship on the rich—and difficult—history of natural history.

People wait for trains on the platform at Kyiv train station on February 28, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukraine, Russia, and the West: A Background Reading List

Research reports and scholarly articles on the history of the Ukraine–Russia conflicts of the past and possible paths for peace.

The Making and Meaning of Greenland: A Reading List

A selection of research reports and peer-reviewed articles offers insight into the history and potential future of the autonomous territory of Greenland.

Syllabus

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Cultures

More and more states are choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.

Voting in American Politics: A Syllabus

From battles to expand the franchise to the mysteries of turnout, voting is one of the most important things to understand about US politics.

An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs

A True Crime Syllabus

How did we become so obsessed with “true crime”? This multidisciplinary syllabus shows how we view crime as a whole and how those views have changed over time.